Loading…
Loading…
The final rule (RIN 1505-AC91; FR Doc 2024-30344) amends 32 parts of 31 CFR chapter V — covering essentially every active OFAC country and list-based sanctions program. Affected parts (canonical list per the rule's preamble) include 31 CFR 510 (DPRK), 515 (Cuba), 526 (Syria — pre-PAARSS), 536 (Narcotics Kingpin), 544 (CAATSA), 547 (Yemen Stabilization), 548 (Burundi), 549 (Lebanon), 550 (CAR), 551 (Mali), 552 (Counter-Narcotics designations), 553 (Sudan Stabilization), 555 (Nicaragua), 558 (DRC), 569 (Russian Harmful Foreign Activities), 570 (Libya), 576 (Iraq Stabilization), 578 (Western Balkans), 579 (Ethiopia), 582 (Lebanon supplemental), 583 (Ukraine/Russia), 584 (Magnitsky / GLOMAG), 585 (Ukraine-/Russia- Related), 587 (Russian Harmful Foreign Activities supplemental), 588 (Belarus), 589 (Ukraine-/Russia-Related expanded), 590 (Venezuela), 591 (Venezuela supplemental), 594 (Global Terrorism), 597 (Foreign Terrorist Organizations), 598 (Foreign Narcotics Kingpin), and 599 (CAATSA Russia/Iran).
Three structural changes:
1. Annual report → 10-year recordkeeping. The pre-existing general licenses required US persons receiving payment for authorised legal services to file an annual report with OFAC itemising payments received. The rule replaces that ex-ante reporting requirement with a 10-year recordkeeping requirement (records produced on OFAC request), aligning with the 10-year statute of limitations enacted by §3111 of the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act (24 April 2024) and OFAC's parallel 5→10-year recordkeeping extension under 31 CFR 501 (filed at 2025-03-21-us-ofac-recordkeeping-extension-final-rule).
2. GL standardisation. Programs whose legal-services general licenses retained legacy operational requirements — e.g., the §594 (Global Terrorism) and §597 (FTOs) requirement that US attorneys obtain a letter of engagement before receiving funds from non-US sources — are conformed to OFAC's current modal text by removing those requirements.
3. Specific-license carve-outs eliminated. In 31 CFR 549 (Lebanon) and 31 CFR 576 (Iraq Stabilization and Insurgency), the prior general license authorised the provision of legal services but required separate specific licensing for payment. The rule consolidates payment authorisation into the general license, removing the specific-license bottleneck for routine fee receipt.
workflow that compliance teams maintained for each blocked-party legal-services engagement is replaced by record-retention obligations. Net workload likely lower for active practices; retention infrastructure burden higher (10-year hold vs. prior 5-year minimum).
letter-of-engagement prerequisites in §§594/597 simplifies the receipt of legal fees from clients who have non-US-source funds but are tangentially listed under FTO/Global Terrorism authorities, which had been a friction point for litigation-funder and third-party-payment arrangements.
specific-license requirement for payment receipt under §549/§576 reduces individualised-license processing volume at OFAC's Licensing Division.
5→10-year recordkeeping extension together establish a consistent 10-year retention baseline across sanctions-program general licenses, simplifying compliance-program design but raising the storage-and-retrieval cost baseline.
general licenses (e.g., medical-services authorisations, humanitarian general licenses) under the same recordkeeping template — the December 2024 rule narrows its scope to legal services specifically.
PAARSS) inherits the modernised legal-services GL text, given that 31 CFR 526 (legacy Syria) was within the December 2024 update's scope but the program has since been restructured under PAARSS.
reports otherwise due in 2025 for 2024 calendar-year activity — OFAC's transition guidance addresses this in supplemental FAQs.